Creature spawnpoints are often thought of as defensive/economical play (battleforges are cheaper and support soloing so are a bit more complex), and obviously they have slightly less immediate aggressive pay-off than a turn 2 Lord of Fire or a Forcemaster solo rush. But I was wondering how often people used spawnpoints aggressively. There are two obvious builds for this, I think

Beastmaster. The Lair is reasonably tough and doesn't depend on anything else (unlike Barracks, Graveyard etc.) to work effectively. This allows you to run fast turn and drop it far centre.

Beastmasters gets cheap Rouse the Beast, so creatures can hit as soon as they arrive. Lots of small, cheap craetures allows you to keep the pressure up, and being in your opponents face reduces their ability to spend actions/mana on mordok's obelisk and similar. For Straywood, this works great with Pet Falcon for a brutal turn 2 attack. For Johktari, she can run and drop a Lair far centre and still have an action free for an enchantment, enchanters ring or leather boots/gloves.

Adramalech Warlock. This is slightly different as the Pentagram itself doesn't have to be far forward, as you can rely on wildfire imps instead. Place and harmonise a pentagram first turn, and then use either a lash-build or a hawkeye-flameblast build to lay down fire on your opponents with the mage: explode and ignite are useful backups!

I'm not convinced about the others: barracks is vulnerable and needs other outposts, temple of asyra needs harmonisation to summon, graveyard needs a flow of deaths to become efficient and the necromancer is squishy, trees are vulnerable to fire... you might be able to do something with gate to voltari, though.

Any thoughts?

I'm not sure if I've ever made a priestess book before: if I did, it was very early on when I first got the base set and probably involved a crazy-slow Asyran cleric centred economy build. Anyway, I've been playing beastmaster for the last six months or so with the same opponents, and wanted a bit of a change, so built this deck. It's by no means fine-tuned, but I found it interesting to play

[spellbook]
[spellbookheader]
[spellbookname]Snapping Turtle[/spellbookname]
[mage]Priestess[/mage]
[/spellbookheader]
[spells]
[spellclass]Attack[/spellclass]
[mwcard=mw1a11]1 x  Pillar of Light[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNA01]1 x  Acid Ball[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWA02]1 x  Force Hammer[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Conjuration[/spellclass]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKW01]2 x  Wall of Steel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1j08]1 x  Hand of Bim-Shalla[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1j09]1 x  Temple of the Dawnbreaker[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Creature[/spellclass]
[mwcard=mw1c06]1 x  Brogan Bloodstone[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1c31]1 x  Samandriel, Angel of Light[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1c39]1 x  Valshalla, Lightning Angel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1c22]2 x  Knight of Westlock[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1c28]1 x  Royal Archer[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKC06]1 x  Guardian Angel[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Enchantment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=mw1e29]1 x  Nullify[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e10]1 x  Decoy[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKE03]4 x  Healing Charm[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKE01]1 x  Armor Ward[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e11]1 x  Divine Intervention[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e37]1 x  Fortified Position[/mwcard]
[mwcard=MWSTX1CKE02]1 x  Divine Might[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e12]2 x  Divine Protection[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e36]2 x  Rhino Hide[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e01]1 x  Bear Strength[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e30]2 x  Pacify[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1e05]1 x  Cheetah Speed[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Equipment[/spellclass]
[mwcard=mw1q24]1 x  Ring of Asyra[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q15]1 x  Leather Boots[/mwcard]
[mwcard=FWQ10]1 x  Storm Drake Hide[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q09]1 x  Enchanter's Ring[/mwcard]
[mwcard=DNQ07]2 x  Veteran's Belt[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q06]1 x  Dragonscale Hauberk[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q19]1 x  Mage Wand[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q04]1 x  Deflection Bracers[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1q03]1 x  Crown of Protection[/mwcard]
[spellclass]Incantation[/spellclass]
[mwcard=mw1i12]1 x  Force Push[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i14]1 x  Heal[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i13]1 x  Group Heal[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i24]1 x  Seeking Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i20]1 x  Purify[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i28]1 x  Teleport[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i07]2 x  Dissolve[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i06]3 x  Dispel[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i17]2 x  Minor Heal[/mwcard]
[mwcard=mw1i02]1 x  Battle Fury[/mwcard]
[/spells]
[cost]Total cost: 120 pts[/cost]
[/spellbook]

Strategy

My approach is essentially 'build up a buffed army while stacking armour on the mage'. The details depend on whether my opponent is aggressive or defensive. So as a sample against a very aggressive opponent (i.e. a forcemaster who starts with cheetah speed, run, galvitar...) I started the other day with something like:
Turn 1: Don't move. Battle Forge ( on my centre square, Guardian Angel (12) Mana remaining - 0
Turn 2 (10 mana): BF: Enchantment Ring on self (1). Guardian angel guards. , f/d Rhino Hide on myself (1), f/d fortified position on my home square (2).  Mana remaining - 6
Turn 3 (16 mana) BF: Crown of Protection (0). Prepare divine protection and Knight of Westlock.

This means that
- if he teleports me in with him to double-strike, I can reveal rhino hide and still cast KoW and divine protection (or flee, cast divine protection and boost the angel's armour),
- if he pulls the angel away and charges I can reveal both rhino hide AND fortified position, lay divine protection and boost the angel's armour
- if he pauses to summon, I can summon Knight of Westlock and cast divine protection.


Thoughts on Priestess cards

I didn't realise how good Guardian Angel being flying was
Obviously you lose it when you guard, and I saw it as pretty situational: get over a wall or whatever. But not only does that utility help, but it's useful that you start flying when you lose the guard marker. So if my angel has just been hit in the face and is down to low health, she automatically takes to the air and is difficult to attack! Giving me time to healing charm her and use her innate healing before she gets hit again
Divine enchantments are ace
With enchanters ring and Ring of Asyra, I can put divine protection (aegis) on a creature for 2 mana. That's obscene. Or I can heal them four dice for 3 mana. Either way, I get a life for doing it. Similarly, pacify is far more efficient than essence drain and amounts to the much the same against a lot of creatures.
Knights of Westlock seem to be the benchmark 'normal' level 3
The clear next step from Timber Wolves as the workhorse Level 2, they have a reasonably scary attack, good armour AND a good defence. Healing charm and divine protection are both great for making the most of that armour and preventing a couple of unlucky rolls taking them out. In particular, they're a breath of fresh air after Dire Wolves.
Brogan really irritates defensive mages
He's the reason I have bear strength in my deck: if you're giving someone melee+2, it might as well be someone who won't miss and won't care about armour.
Priestess really annoys my forcemaster opponent
Genuine frustration grew as my roster of guards increased


Stuff I'd like to add

Temple of the Dawnbreaker (everyone has defences, and this will be brutal if I have veterans belt on)
More pacifies and divine protections (if I can steal them from my brother's base set)
Asyran Defender (FiF)
Armory (FiF: at this point, I'd consider ditching the angels and specialising in soldiers)
Temple High Guard (whenever it emerges)


Really grateful for any thoughts!

Random thought: is it explicitly intended (for backstory etc. as well as pragmatic gameplay) that Magewars takes place in a world of Vancian magic (i.e. the system best known from D+D, where mages 'memorise' a series of spells each with a distinctive power and then, once cast, are unable to cast them again until properly rested: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VancianMagic)?

Obviously it wouldn't be pure Vancian magic, as you need mana as well.

If so, is the idea that an individual Mage would be able to memorise any selection of spells he wanted for a given fight, and his spellbook represents his capacity to 'contain' certain spells, or does the spellbook represent the spells he's learnt through his studies? Either of these seem to be compatible with 'foreign' spells from strange schools being harder to have in the book. I prefer the latter aesthetically because it makes mages seem more personal/distinctive: although if someone is playing 'in character' as a named Mage but wants to keep swapping spells around, the former makes more sense. Obviously some combination is possible: a Mage could formally 'memorise' (or even just 'revise' the incantantations for) a different selection of spells from his total repertoire before each fight.